Predestination

Job vs. Satan

The story of Job can be used to illustrate how Satan is also predestined. First let us look at the story:

Job 1:8-12 – Then the LORD said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan replied. Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to you face. The LORD said to Satan, Very well, then everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger. Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. (NIV)

In verse 8, God starts a conversation with Satan, by telling him about His servant Job. He says that Job is blameless and upright. From this verse alone, we can understand a lot about the nature of God. God wants to prove his glory and power by using his elect servants as examples. Note that God never uses Jesus as an example of how to live your life. Jesus did NOT live by example. He ministered using teachings from the word, parables, and miracles. “What Would Jesus Do?” is a nice idea, but not Biblical. Getting back to the story, Satan responds by arguing that Job only serves God because he is wealthy. Satan then requests from God permission to take away his family, servants, and livestock in order to prove His point. This shows us that Satan’s will is below God’s will, just as man. God created Satan, therefore owns him, just as God owns man. In the end, Satan will also be subject to God’s judgment:

Revelation 20:10 – and the Devil, who is leading them astray, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where [are] the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night – to the ages of the ages (YLT)

Revelation tells us Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire. So Satan is predestined to the lake of fire, just as many non-believers are. Many people focus on all the bad things that happened to Job in this story, but they ignore the ending, which is the most important part:

Job 42:12-17 – The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years. (NIV)

We see in this passage that God compensates and restores what Job lost, but not only that, God gives him twice the amount of livestock he had to begin with in Job 1. So what can we learn from this story? We need to stop blaming other people, demons, Satan, or even God for our problems. Why? Because we don’t see the full picture of God’s plan. Have you ever been through something that seemed bad at the time, but afterwards you were glad it happened? Have you had a break up with someone that seemed bad, but later you were glad that you broke up? That was all according to God’s plan. There are three main reasons why we undergo trials or problems:

1. Testing Our Faith – God sometimes just wants to test you to see if you still believe in Him. This makes our faith grow, and makes us stronger followers of Christ. An example of this is when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac in Genesis 22.

2. Purification – God wants to make you holy, not happy. Regardless if you are saved or not, everyone has something to learn from God. God wants to teach us lessons of love, patience, kindness, forgiveness, etc. His goal is for us to be blameless and free of sin.

3. Example – God also likes to use people as examples so that others may grow. This was the case for Job. Job’s neighbors and friends were constantly telling him to curse God because of everything he loss, but he never did. When God restored all that Job lost, his friends learned from Job, and probably grew closer to God.

Conclusion

To sum this up, look at Ephesians:

Ephesians 1:4-6 – For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely give us in the One he loves. (NIV)

This verse says that God predestined some to be saved form the lake of fire before the creation of the world, in accordance to His will. It doesn’t get any more clearer than that. God had a plan from the beginning and now he is carrying it out. He did not create the world and walk away. That would be Deism. So when Christians say that God relinquished his free will and gave it to man and angels, it is borderline Deism and illogical. We have seen that the Bible gives us examples of predestination including Jacob and Esau, Pharaoh, Job, and even Satan. We also talked about God’s laws of ownership and liability. All of these things build up and point us towards predestination.